The University of Florida president, Kent Fuchs, told students to stay away and deny Richard Spencer (pictured) the attention.
Photograph: David J Phillip/AP

Governor Rick Scott of Florida has declared a state of emergency ahead of a speech by a white nationalist leader this week at the University of Florida, in order to free up resources to prepare for possible violence.

Richard Spencer’s speech on Thursday in Gainesville is part of a national campaign to use outrage over racist events on university campuses to draw attention to white nationalist ideas. The tour is also designed keep fringe provocateurs like Spencer in the media spotlight.

Spencer has advocated for a “white ethno-state” in North America that would be achieved through “peaceful ethnic cleansing”.

He is most famous for shouting “Hail Trump!” at a white nationalist conference after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president in January, a cry some supporters greeted with Nazi salutes. The 39-year-old was later punched in the face, which prompted a debate over whether Americans believe it is right to combat Nazis with violence.

Public universities have split in their response to attempts to host racist, xenophobic and antisemitic events on their campuses. Some have denied requests, citing safety concerns. A few have faced lawsuits as a result. Other public university leaders have argued that America’s strict freedom of speech protections give them no choice but to allow Spencer to use campus venues.

Citing serious safety concerns, the University of Florida was one of several schools to deny Spencer’s requests to speak in the wake of events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, where a peaceful counter-protester was killed when a car was driven into a crowd.

Under threat of legal action, the school reversed course and said it and other local agencies would spend more than $500,000 on security costs to comply with Spencer’s request to rent a campus venue for a speech on 19 October.

In a statement in early October, the university president, W Kent Fuchs, said: “If you are like me, I expect you are surprised and even shocked to learn that [the university] is required by law to allow Mr Spencer to speak his racist views on our campus, and that we are not allowed by law to bill him for the full costs of keeping our campus safe, which exceed more than a half million dollars.”

This month, two public universities in Ohio have split on their response to Spencer’s attempts to speak on their campuses, the University of Cincinnati announcing it would have to let him speak and Ohio State University denying a request, citing safety concerns, and saying it was “currently considering other alternatives”, according to the university’s student newspaper.

“We cannot silence those with whom we disagree without opening the doors to our own voices being silenced by those who disagree with us,” the University of Cincinnati president, Neville Pinto, said in a statement.

In April, after Auburn University in Alabama tried to bar Spencer, citing safety concerns, a federal judge ruled the denial was unconstitutional. Spencer’s speech at Auburn was greeted with angry protests and scuffles but no serious violence.

That was before rallies in August led by Spencer and other white nationalists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville led to violent clashes with counter-protesters. The night before a planned “Unite the Right” event on 12 August, young white nationalists wearing white polo shirts and carrying flaming torches marched through the University of Virginia’s campus, chanting “You will not replace us” and “Jews will not replace us”.

The next day, fights broke out in the streets of the posh university town, leading officials to shut down the rally early. After the melee, as counter-protesters were dispersing, a 20-year-old man who is said by law enforcement officials to have harboured Nazi sympathies drove his car into a crowd, killing a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer.

The University of Florida downplayed the seriousness of the governor’s declaration of a state of emergency in a statement, saying it was “not in response to any specific heightened threat. It is a process that enables various law enforcement agencies to work together more efficiently.”

Scott said: “This executive order is an additional step to ensure that the University of Florida and the entire community is prepared so everyone can stay safe.”

The governor said in his order there was a need to implement a coordinated security plan among local and state agencies. The Orlando Sentinel newspaper quoted Spencer as saying the emergency declaration was “flattering” but “most likely overkill”.

In a video message this week, university president Fuchs told students to stay away, deny Spencer attention and ignore his “message of hate”.

“The values of our universities are not shared by Mr Spencer,” he said. “Our campuses are places where people from all races, origins and religions are welcome and treated with love.

“We refuse to be defined by this event. We will overcome this external threat to our campus and our values.”